


Always.

by BunnyJess



Category: DCU
Genre: Adoption, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arkham Asylum, Blood, Care, Family, Fatal Wounds, Fluff, Found Family, Gunshot Wounds, M/M, Making things right, Murder, Protective Jason Todd, Showers, Supportive Sasha, Sword Injuries, help washing, hurt with comfort, mental health patient, protective Grant wilson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:02:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25629394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunnyJess/pseuds/BunnyJess
Summary: Tossed aside by his family and into the hell that is Arkham, Jason thinks about his other family. The family he built. The fiery teenaged girl with two formerly dead assassins as parents; what’s the worst that could happen? Apart from a break-in and some much needed mayhem and payback...
Relationships: Jason Todd/Grant Wilson
Comments: 8
Kudos: 87





	Always.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Belfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Belfire/gifts).



> Another of the fics I wrote for my baby sibling for their birthday. They’re awesome and as I couldn’t be with them I figured I’d write some stuff for them. Love you baby.

Clanging of locks and rattling of keys. Screams accompanying laughter. Shouts of sanity mixed with riddled replies.

Every night in Arkham was the same.

Every. Fucking. Night.

Jason isn’t sure how long he’s been there. It feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago that Dick threw him in here. Tossing him away like everyone else in his life. No considerations for Sasha. No considerations for anyone who depended on him.

Shifting around on the paper thin mattress and turning to face the wall Jason wished he’d never crawled out of his grave. Every laughter the Joker let out scraping down to the bone. He’d give anything to get within arms reach of the freak. It’d be the work of a few seconds to shank him and move on.

That was another _lovely_ thing Dickie had arranged for him. Jason was to be watched twenty-four seven. He wasn’t to be in the same room as the clown, nor was he allowed to decline any visitor requests.

So far the fake-Batman has been by four times a week to visit. Apparently the Alley wasn’t dropping into the abyss like the ‘family’ had been anticipating with Jason’s incarceration. The news made him smile every time. His own little secret weapon keeping everything running wonderfully smooth. As soon as he got out he’d move up the timetable for spreading his reach over the city. Forcing out the likes of Sionis and Cobblepot.

A loud explosion shook the building. Crumbling, mould-stained (at least Jason hoped it was mould) plaster hitting everything in the cell. He stayed where he was. Unless the new exit was specifically for him he’d be staying right where he was so he could antagonise his ‘big brother’.

He’d just shut his eyes. The plan to stay where he was going swimmingly. When the door flew open and two people were silhouetted in the doorway. Looking over at them made him smile, they’d come.

“Come on Hood, time to leave.” Sasha had suited up as Scarlet for him. A fission of guilt shot through him, he’d promised her she wouldn’t have to. That she could give t all up and he’d support her in her future. “Stop looking at me like that. I wasn’t going to let him have all the fun.”

Jason ruffled her red hair as he stepped through the door.

Strong arms pulling him into a hug. The only reason they didn’t end up on the floor was the familiar armour under Jason’s hands and that obnoxiously posh cologne he’d worn since they were kids playing hero. He reached up and knocked the man’s helmet up just so he could reach those lips he’d missed. Pressing a quick kiss to them to ground him in all the mayhem.

“We’ve got all the time in the world for you two to make me vom once we get home. Now, we need to leave.” Sasha lovingly reminded them.

They hadn’t changed. It had been six months but Sasha and Grant Wilson were his family. They’d come for him. They’d risked everything to get him out.

Working back towards where they’d discreetly entered was easy. Grant handing off a sword and Sasha a gun to Jason. The three of them mowing down everyone they needed to.

As they passed the corridor that led to the two people Jason had wanted to kill above all else he paused. Turning down them came without thought. Marching down the hallway, flickering lights adding to the atmosphere.

A drawling Upper Gotham accent interrupted his hunt. “Do you feel lucky?” Harvey Dent asked from inside his cell. The power for this block ran off its own circuit so it couldn’t be cut with the rest of the asylum…not that that stopped the numerous escapes.

Jason didn’t pause. Shooting the fucker in the stomach, just the once. Just to fuck with his obsession with twos.

Three cells down from the former district attorney, now ranting about killing Hood for only shooting him once, was his first target.

A short, rotund man with an incessant need to squeal like a pig and turn people into perfect beings. Professor Pyg, real name Lazlo Valentin, was the bastard who’d attempted to destroy Sasha and turn her into one of his Dollotrons. He’d failed, he’d also slipped through Jason’s fingers thanks to the ‘family’.

Grabbing one of the pipes along the ceiling, Jason heaved himself up and swung towards the door, his momentum and boots colliding with the door’s weak spot making it cave in. The door made him shake his head. Oh sure, he had to be behind four separate locking mechanism and two inches of solid steel while this child murderer only had to be behind a half-inch of Perspex.

A swing of the sword and Jason sliced Lazlo’s throat open. Blood spraying out and coating everything in sight. The mess satisfying as Lazlo bled out in seconds.

Time to move on.

As he had been since Jason was Robin, Joker was located at the very end of the corridor. His cell in line of sight for any guard walking down it. Supposedly to help prevent him breaking out, Jason was convinced it was actually so Bruce could see the freak any time he visited without having to drag him to the visitors room.

Swiping a keycard he’d picked up from a dead guard, one of only a handful as Grant and Sasha had been knocking out anyone who didn’t reach for a weapon, the door unlocked. _Of course it does. Why do I get a cell that’s clearly been waiting for me since my return that’s ridiculous while my murderer gets only a flimsy electronic lock and keycard system._

“Dead birdy!” Joker singsonged at him. Laughing at the blood drying on his jumpsuit. The sooner he could shower the better. Preferably with Grant joining once he’d scrubbed down. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Jason didn’t speak. Didn’t think he could. The clown still plaguing his nightmares. More than once making him wake up swinging at Grant. He’d frozen. Just like all those years ago in a shoddy flat in Crime Alley, he’d frozen. Joker pulling him into that same mindset he’d experienced prior to his death.

A tug to his hand had him looking down. Sasha’s fiery hair and imperfectly perfect smile greeting him. Pulling him back to the present.

One of the strong arms that had held him through many a nightmare, that had rocked him as he’d cried, held him down as he’d tried to scratch his eyes out or ears off, that dragged him to the mats to fight it out, pushed him back. A soccer-mom of an arm feeling like he was wearing his armour and not a flimsy jumpsuit.

Three shots rang out in quick succession. One to the head and two to the chest. The clown’s brain and body matter painting his cell.

Jason knew it was the real one for once. He’d made a point of ensuring Jason knew it was him during his first week locked up. Multiple messages relayed to build his fear.

No breakdown came. No great moment of weightlessness. No feeling of freedom. Just the ringing in his ears indicative of being in a confined space with a firing gun.

The breakdown came later. Stood under the spray of the shower. Hot water turning red as it ran down his body and into the drain. Sobs tearing from his throat as it finally hit him. _I’m free. Im actually free_.

A soft washcloth started running over his skin, Grant’s soft humming filling the space left by his crying. Tears slowly subsiding as he slumped heavy and heavy into Grant’s chest.

Hands moved to wash out his hair. Carefully combing out every knot and tangle. Rubbing in the deep conditioning mask he denied owning. Charcoal washed out to reveal his white streak.

“Thank you.” Jason whispered once he could unstick his throat. The enormity of what Grant has done for him hitting him all over again. Bruce had never, could never, but Grant had.

“Always.” Grant said just as softly. The reply the same as it always was when Jason would thank him for soothing away the last dredges of nightmares tinged in green, purple, and the red of his own blood.


End file.
